Legacy and Synchronicity

 

Today is my father Jack Davis’s birthday. He would have been 94. He died 51 years ago in 1970 when I was 13 years old. My mom became a widow at 38 with 4 children ranging in age from 6-13. I was the eldest child. My father was an engineer and owned his own engineering company and foundry called Rustenburg Engineers.

Growing up in a mining town (platinum) the opportunity arose for my dad to design a pulley needed at that time for the platinum mining process. This pulley was patented as the “RENG” pulley. After my dad died, my mom made the decision to sell the business. It was sold in August 1970 to JCI Engineering. The legacy my dad left was in part what helped keep my mom to survive financially, although she was herself a professional pharmacist. The legacy was his generous spirit in the community and the fact that we felt proud of what my dad had achieved and how much he impacted us in the truly short time we had together. This newspaper clipping was all we had.

 

Fast forward to January 2021- 50 years later.  My nephew Martin Davis (Jack’s grandson) is now a qualified engineer, working for an engineering consulting company in Pretoria. He works with a fellow engineer called Harmen von Zwietring.  They talk causally about life and Harmen, who comes from Rustenburg asks Martin about his connection to Rustenburg as he seems to visit quite often. Martin shares that he visits his aunt on his mother’s side of the family but that his father’s family have a long history in Rustenburg (4 generations starting in 1902). Harmen is home in December and shares this story with his dad, Hilko von Zwietring.

Harmen arrives back at work in January this year and gives Martin the original pulley made by my dad so many years back. These were lying in his dad’s garage. We do not yet have the full story of how this came about, but Hilko worked in the same Accounting company in Rustenburg who managed my Father’s business affairs. Martin and Harmen’s grannies were good friends and fellow Rotarians. I am presuming it has something to do with samples for the patent registration at the time.

Martin shared this amazing story with my brother Frank, who is also an engineer and has given the pullies to my brother.

What are the chances that 50 years after his death that this piece of metal that only has a special place in our hearts comes full circle back to us?

A gift to remind us that even though the years have passed, while we were still children, the impact that my dad had has continued.  The gift of legacy and synchronicity.

Thank you Hilko and Harmen, you will never know what this means to us.